My wife moved back to the UK with our children from Australia in April last year. Soon after her arrival she incurred a parking ticket for £30 from Bath & North East Somerset Council. Stupidly, with everything she had going on, she overlooked it.

Fast forward to this week when, at our new home, a bailiff turned up while I was at work. He was intimidating and threatened to take our car. It turns out he had earlier reduced the resident at our old house to tears after calling there. In the end, my wife paid him £370. The council insists that it sent letters to our old address but we never received them and, as the bailiff found us at our new home, I am sure they could have done so. I accept it's our mistake and we should have paid further charges, but £370 feels like extortion. TB, Bristol

It sounds as though you forgot to notify the DVLA of your new address when you moved, so the council would have found your car registered to your old home and sent letters there.

Unfortunately for you, councils have scary powers to enforce parking penalties. Since the Road Traffic Act 1991 decriminalised parking offences, they no longer have to wait for a court order before dispatching bailiffs – instead, they can apply to the Traffic Enforcement Centre to have the penalty charge registered as if it were a county court judgment. The council can then instruct bailiffs to come to your home and seize your belongings, including your vehicle, and they don't have to send you a copy of the warrant or even warn you one has been issued.

Once the bailiffs are involved you have no right of appeal. Bath & North East Somerset Council says that since none of the letters that went to the address it had for you were returned, they are deemed to have been lawfully served and two would have warned of an impending visit from bailiffs. "The charges levied by the bailiff are statutory, and are required to reflect the costs incurred in recovering the debt," says a council spokesman.

"We appreciate that a visit from a bailiff often causes an emotive situation, and therefore we take reports of intimidating behaviour seriously and will work with our bailiffs to ensure this behaviour does not occur. Our bailiff has its own formal complaints process which should be used regarding the behaviour of individual bailiffs."

If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number.